Ego-tripping lawyers

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Boston Legal (Seven, 9.30pm)

It must be payback time for David E. Kelley. With handwritten
scripts on yellow legal pads for Ally McBeal, Chicago
Hope and The Practice, the one-time Boston lawyer became
one of TV's most prolific writer-producers. Now he has come up with
another wonderful courtroom sleight of hand.

With this one, it looks as if he's remembered the mischiefs
inflicted upon him by the law and resurrected them for our
amusement.

Kelley has again pushed the envelope beyond logic. After
allowing a couple of characters a test run in The Practice,
he sacked the show, but has brought them back as stars of his
outrageous revamped comedy-drama spin-off, Boston Legal.

James Spader's ethically challenged lawyer, Alan Shore, is - as
we learned from The Practice - like a shark feeding on
penguins. Shore is the show's new partner, a chillingly cool, calm
man who enjoys nothing more than to be challenged. Watch him snip
up privileged Brad Chase (Mark Valley) as the rival tries to
politely assert his seniority. Chase hasn't a chance.

"I'm such a slut for authority," says the perversely calm
Shore.

Remember Denny Crane? How could you forget him? William
Shatner's most entertaining oddball since Captain Kirk is the
senior partner in the firm. Shore has developed a special affection
for him. Crane is, in effect, his mentor. A lecherous womaniser and
brilliantly talented attorney wary of any nonsense, Crane worries
he may be starting to "lose it".

The others are circling around him, but, with Shore's backing
and an ability to surprise even his most worrying critics, he
should survive. He is nuts, of course, but there are bigger
lunatics around.

One of the firm's partners arrives at conference forgetting his
trousers. "Unbelievable," another lawyer says, as the man is
stretchered away. "Not really," says Crane. "Always believed he was
a loon."

Shore, hardly the full three-dollar bill himself, is surrounded
by wacky characters. Confused, he consults Crane.

"Denny, I'm having an identity crisis," he says. "I've always
prided myself on being, well, nuts. In this firm, I find myself
falling into the sane category."

In Boston Legal, Kelley has also reversed his gender
sympathies. His women aren't his strengths. The men are
all-powerful. And if the law is not a bare arse, it can, as the
Reverend Alan Sharpton shows us in bizarre courtroom scenes,
certainly be entertainment.